Tuesday's surprise announcement that Paramount and DreamWorks would drop Blu-ray for HD DVD caused quite a flutter in the home theater community. Following are a few notes in the aftermath of the PR explosion.

The editors of Home Theater magazine have announced the winners of the 2007 RAVE Awards (Recognition of Audio and Video Excellence). Open to all manufacturers, the RAVE Awards, now in its fifth year, recognize excellence in the manufacturing of superior audio and video components that have been reviewed and tested by the Home Theater staff and respected contributors over a 12-month period.

Downloads and streaming are nothing new. But lala.com offers both with an unusual angle on streaming. Instead of paying an all-you-can-eat subscription fee, you can pay 10 cents for the right to stream a song indefinitely. If that's not convenient, you can also pay to download it in the conventional way.

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, arguably the greatest sfx fest in movie history, will finally get a high-def release next year. Unfortunately, there's a catch. The Blu-ray disc release will use only the shorter cut shown in theaters.

As is their practice this time of every year, Mitsubishi recently invited dealers to a secret location (actually it was in Orlando, Florida) where, amidst much hoopla, wining and dining, and the all-important dealer/sales representative bonding (courtesy of the wining and dining), the company unveiled the HDTVs which will be available for delivery to home theaters later this year. Mitsubishi's introduction brought to light 17 new models and involved several of the world's most sought after display technologies.

Mitsubishi made a big splash at the CEA Line shows with LaserVue and conventional RPTVs (click here for more on those) as well as a new line of LCD TVs dubbed Unisen. All feature the Immersive Sound Technology soundbar that made its debut last year, though none use LED backlighting.

Rafe Needleman of c|net has a problem with 3D. He's a self-described "flat viewer" and thus can't see 3D effects even if they work fine for most other people. And he's not alone. Four to ten percent of the population has the same problem, "depending on which expert you ask."